New York City, New York Nov 24, 2024 (Issuewire.com) - CytoTronics, a pioneer of semiconductor-based platforms for discovery in cell biology, recently secured $13.5M in Series Seed 2 funding. The company partnered with Funden, a platform that helps busy founders raise capital, to expand CytoTronics investor network and secure the specialized hardware’s final fundraising goals.
The product, called Pixel, enables high-resolution, multiplexed, real-time assessment of live-cell characteristics, providing deeper understanding of how chemical or genetic perturbations affect cell function. It consists of plate and reader options to suit various applications with different throughputs, from low-throughput research to high-throughput screening.
CytoTronics hopes Pixel will help achieve breakthroughs in therapeutic areas including vascular, inflammatory, cardiovascular, and neurological disease, rare disease, and oncology. These areas could all be fundamentally improved by the first-of-its-kind tool because it offers researchers the ability to conduct thousands of cellular experiments simultaneously with high precision.
Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer (CBO), Duane Sword, remarked on the difficulty of connecting investors to new products, particularly in niche technology markets. “Hardware is hard, and hardware is expensive–and we're a hardware enabled semiconductor platform. Everyone can get excited about tech, but unless you can confirm that customers are willing to pay you, investors only care about the risk profile.”
The founders partnered with Funden to improve their pitch and create a more accessible message for broader investor networks. “From the first touchpoint, our primary focus is to help the team find their story-driven narrative,” said Jake Casas, Funden's VC-in-Residence, who works 1-on-1 with founders to develop the best narrative surrounding their business in order to speak the language of investors and meet their expectations. “A well-polished narrative is especially important for a company in biology, hardware, and deep-tech verticals - it's hard to succinctly articulate unique value props because the technology is so novel. This helps investors quickly understand why any given deal is worth spending more time on as opposed to just plainly presenting the core business function of a company.”
The connections Funden helped facilitate included more than 200 investors and $3M in additional round funding.
The Series Seed 2 round was led by LYFE Capital and Anzu Partners. New investors included Legend Star, RIT Venture Fund (Rochester Institute of Technology), and Draper Associates, who connected with the company through Funden.
About CytoTronics
CytoTronics is transforming cell biology discovery with high-throughput, semiconductor-based platforms. Their hardware, Pixel, provides live cell insights with single-cell resolution across all cell types. By seamlessly integrating semiconductors with conventional microplates, Pixel unlocks multi-modal electrical, electrochemical, and electrophysiological capabilities, delivering an unprecedented scope of data collection and scale-up for cell biology research, drug development, and pharmaceutical manufacturing applications. Established as a spin-off from Harvard University in 2021, they are headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Learn more at www.cytotronics.com or follow them on LinkedIn.
About Funden
Funden is a platform that helps founders streamline their fundraising efforts. From strategy sessions to curated intros, Funden works with a network of 1,100+ VCs and investors to help you focus on growth while filling your calendar with high-quality investor meetings.
Media Contact
Siddharth Sareen siddharth@funden.app https://funden.com/
